Bindu Tandon: "I had to keep a writing schedule, a place at my desk, a few mantras and the bell off.." (Interview)

 

As I wrote in one of my reviews recently that I don’t generally pick short stories or anthologies because I find it hard to connect with them but I keep trying one or the other books occasionally in order to see if any author has written a book capable of keeping me intriguing with the stories and concepts. I found one such books recently named “Of Beasts and Beauty” written by the authoress, Bindu. I really liked it and thought of knowing author’s perspective in order to understand what she thinks while writing such stories which are so different from each other. So, please go through the short interview I had with her just 2 days back….

 

Hi Bindu, so how do you feel now after becoming a published author finally?

Thrilled at making it. Nervous at fitting in! No longer am I a dilettante, playing with words and stories. I will be assessed. I will be required to answer questions from readers and critics.

Tell us something about since when you started writing and the first time, the thought occurred to you for writing a book.

I have an unfinished, mostly finished book lying in a bottom drawer. I wrote that a little over a decade back.

 

Please let us know about your anthology- "Of Beasts & Beauty".

The collection occurred in the spaces between writing the 18 chapters of my book. These 13 stories have overtaken the original conception and are my passport to completion and publication (hopefully) of the book. They are complete in themselves and owe nothing to my book. The learning from writing these stories will make my book a better book.

 

Why did you think of writing Short Stories and not a full-fledged novel?

Fully attributable to multiple rejections slips from the great publishers of India. So instead of falling dead at the foot of the unclimbable mountain, I found a way around it.

 

Will we see a full-fledged novel from you in near future?

Very soon.

Before that though Garuda Prakashan will bring out translations in Hindi, work for which is under way!

 

How do you manage to write along with so many personal and professional responsibilities?

Writing to a deadline is the way to go I have found.  The ideas come when you have to finish the story. But the refining of it, the search for its soul needs silence, time and mulling.

I had to keep a writing schedule, a place at my desk, a few mantras and the bell off.

 

 

Do you think spirituality helps in writing and forming better stories?

This is a lovely question. Unexpected and very perceptive.

A story must have life. Be connected to what makes life pleasurable, livable or horrible.  I found that the asymmetry of life that I explore, the hurts and the hates that I end up writing about are manageable only with reference to a strong core inside me.

 

How did you write these 13 stories - based on your creativity or did you get some inspiration around you?

Many of them are based on a germ of a story from real life around me. Mumbai with its vertical living seals you off from your neighbor. At the same time leaves you to imagine what might be going on. It thus provides perfect material for a story, allowing the word to be linked to reality and yet flying free.

There is inspiration for stories all around you. In the lore of Jim Corbett or the sight of a leopard and a temple, or the hobo at the seaside. Dying of a parent. Grief at the state of sculpting. Anger at sneering articles on India…

If you want to write, the material is inexhaustible.

 

Which is your favorite story of all from this book?

I Fell in Love with a Tipsy Gypsy.

 

We saw in your bio on the book that you perform meditation twice a day. What kind of benefit or changes do you find in yourself since you begun this practice?

I admit that you cannot continue to do dhyan unless it overtakes you. So as one in the clutches of dhyan, I admit that it has deepened all that was good in me and is slowly erasing that which held me back.

 

Any words for other aspiring authors.

Yes. Write. Don’t copy. Dream. Want it so badly that you do it.  Find people who are like-minded. Read to them. Hear them read.

I don’t watch too much cinema. I don’t want too many packaged ideas and images. I think that helps.

Don’t copy style.

Refine.

Find a mentor who supports you and who can give you gyaan.

 

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